The Exotic Tamilok

One of Palawan’s exotic delicacy is the Tamilok. Although commonly known as “woodworm”, it is actually a mollusk – a mangrove-tree-boring mollusk.

It is rich in protein, calcium and iodine and is said to be an aphrodisiac. Not nearly as awful as it looks, (long, slimy and grayish white) it tastes like a sweet, delicious raw oyster.

It is served raw after the insides are removed and cleaned and usually are served with dips – a choice of either vinegar or calamansi juice. Some, however, prefers the native coconut vinegar, locally called “sukang-tuba”, as this usually tastes better with tamilok than the commercial vinegars.

Gathering tamilok isn't all that easy. You have to chop your way through trunks and trunks of mangroves to get this delicacy. Embedded inside the trunk, you have to pull the tamilok (which grows up to several inches long) slowly and carefully. It actually has a pair of claws at one end of its body, which must be its only means of defense.

When in Palawan, you can try this exotic delicacy in Kinabuch Restobar in Puerto Princesa or when in Sabang (where the Underground River is) just ask the locals where to get some.

This is one thing that uniquely Palawan’s, or so I thought, until I made a “research” on the internet about it.

Tamilok –so I found out - is a delicacy not only in other provinces of the Philippines (Bohol, Agusan del Norte, and Panay Island provinces) but also in other country like Papau New Guinea. Further, this specie can be found any place in the world where mangrove trees thrive. In Australia, tamilok was actually considered as pest to mangroves.

I think the name “Tamilok” did not came from what some people believed to have a came from – “tammy look!”. As a native of the province, I know that the name had been there since the people able to speak and eat the thing. In Papau New Guinea they call it “tambelo”. So the word could have a malayan-indonesian origin (just a guess).

Tamilok, known scientifically as Bachtronophorus thoracites, is a bivalve mollusk that belongs to teredinidae family.